Today: Reports of production cutbacks due to weak demand send Apple (AAPL) stock diving to lowest point in nearly a year. Also: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell both gain, though for different reasons, and Facebook's rise ends ahead of Tuesday's event.

Reports of decreased orders for iPhone parts have been surfacing periodically in the past month, as analysts conducting checks with Apple's Asian suppliers have noted the changes. Citibank noted the change in December, while downgrading Apple's stock, saying "It is unlikely that Apple is cutting orders in a 'great' demand environment."

However, as analysts cited by name in the Journal story pointed out, such decreases would be typical in the post-holiday quarter, when demand typically drops, and problems with production of the iPhone 5 after it launched in September likely forced Apple to increase orders by larger amounts. Neither news source offered proof of weaker demand nor sales of the iPhone in the fourth quarter.

Despite rational reasons for decreased component orders and previous reports of the move, Apple stock still took a beating, falling lower than $500 early in the session for the first time since February and closing slightly higher than that mark, at $501.75. Shares declined 3.6 percent on the day, damaging stock indexes that rely heavily on the world's most valuable company.

Apple investors fear that weak demand for the iPhone could have caused a weaker-than-expected holiday-shopping quarter in regards to iPhones, which produce the majority of the company's profits because of their large margins. It also could be a sign that Apple is still having issues with production of its popular consumer devices, and is therefore unable to reliably predict its needs.

"Our checks with supply chain contacts close to the situation identified a very different cause (than demand): a slower ramp in the manufacturing of iPhones and iPads (reflecting some quality control issues) and insufficient production lines," Longbow Research analyst Joane Feeney told Reuters. "Rather than ordering more components and having inventory build up further, Apple put component suppliers on notice to hold off, for the time being, on further shipments until it expanded its production lines -- which it plans to complete by the end of the quarter."

The companies continue to battle it out in court, but Samsung's ability to compete with Apple in the marketplace has helped send Apple to "bear market" territory, with the company's share price now down more than $200 from the all-time high reached on the day it launched the iPhone 5 in the United States, Sept. 21. At the end of Monday's session, Apple stock had declined 28.8 percent from its peak price.

San Jose networking giant Cisco (CSCO) also had a strong day, gaining 2.4 percent after Reuters reported that it was seeking to buy a security-software company, while also revealing that the company had tried to buy Palo Alto Networks before the Santa Clara company went public last year; Palo Alto Networks dropped 0.9 percent. Netflix's (NFLX) wild positive ride of the past three months continued, as the Los Gatos company gained .1 percent after signing yet another content deal, with this one giving it more Warner Bros. television shows and cartoons from Cartoon Network.

Despite those gains, the Standard & Poor's 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes declined slightly on the day, and the SV150 index of Silicon Valley's largest tech companies fell much harder, with a 1.1 percent decline.

Facebook announced the event Tuesday, and its stock shot up more than 5 percent the next day, pushing the price higher than $30 for the first time in nearly six months. Since then, Facebook stock continued to climb until Monday, when investors perhaps realized that Facebook's announcement may not live up to the hype, which has been big. As Wedge Partners analyst Martin Pyykkonen wrote, whatever Facebook announces "needs to be innovative, significant and very much focused on monetization" to justify the buildup.

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 1.37, or 0.09 percent, to 1,470.68

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.